Sandals Instead of
Sponsorships: The Sseko
Story
Behind the fair-trade company that’s helping
educate women in Uganda.
KATE SHELLNUTT
Image: Sseko Designs
Earlier this month, a Facebook friend
posted about shopping for strappy spring
sandals. Despite similar styles catching
her eye at Old Navy and Madewell, she
opted to pay more for a pair from Sseko
Designs, a company that ensures
workers a fair wage and supports
college-bound women in East Africa. “I
guess I'll have to spend more so that my
dollar does something more,” she said.
As Sseko founder and CEO Liz Forkin
Bohannon sees it, one purchase or even
one company isn’t going to do much to
change the world, but social enterprises
give shoppers like this one the option to
spend in a way aligns with their values
about women, work, and dignity.
“Just buying a pair of sandals, a
meaningless thing you would have done
anyway, has now become a tangible way
to manifest a belief that you have about
the world,” she said in an interview with
Her.meneutics.
When Bohannon moved to Uganda in
2008, she quickly befriended women
around her age—many of them in the
“gap” period after high school.
Patriarchy and extreme poverty made it
impossible for these grads to save the
funds to make it to university, despite
being among the top in their class. “My
first thought was to start a sponsorship
program, because that was like my only
framework for thinking about how an
American would engage with Africa,”
she said. But the more she got to know
these women, she became convinced that
a business would be the way to go.
Since its founding in 2010, ...

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